Mountain Palm Springs

Mountain Palm Springs is a series of palm grove oases in the southern part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.  The hiking trail described in this chapter visits the following palm groves in this order: Pygmy Grove, Southwest Grove, Surprise Canyon Grove, Palm Bowl Grove and North Grove.  We feel that this is the largest collection of California fan palms in the entire park so, if you’d like to see a lot of palm trees, this is the place to go!

Because this hike follows two different desert washes (drainages that offer increased availability of water), expect to see more desert plants and animals typical to the Anza-Borrego area.  When the trail takes you from one wash to the other, it passes over a rocky ridge with fascinating rock formations along with views of both desert washes below.

Each grove contains between 20 and 100 California fan palm trees.  Fan palms are named after the shape of their large “leaves” (or fronds) that are shaped like a big fan.  New fronds begin growing at the very top of the trunk and, as they get bigger, droop down giving the tree its distinctive look.  As the fronds get even older, they die and create gray/brown “skirts” around the base of the tree.  The dead fronds and their spinney branches eventually fall off and create large piles of “leaf litter” on the ground at the base of the trees.  This pile of dead fronds sometimes makes it difficult to walk around within the groves.

When you visit the different groves, each has its unique characteristics.  One characteristic is related to fire.  Palm tree groves are often struck by lightning which starts a fire that then chars the trunks of the trees but doesn’t kill them.  Although this charring isn’t attractive to look at, the fire does serve to cleans out (burn up) those piles of frond litter.  This is obviously Mother Nature’s way of cleaning house in a palm tree grove.  You’ll see examples of this at Southwest Grove where the trees are burnt and there is much less leaf litter.  Then you’ll notice that the trees at Palm Bowl Grove aren’t burned and there are large piles of palm fronds littered all around the grove.  Of course, we’re assuming that there haven’t been any fires at the Palm Bowl Grove since we last visited!

Another characteristic is the terrain.  Many larger groves that have trees densely packed together grow where there is a spring which gives the trees a good but focused source of water.  This is evident with both Southwest and Palm Bowl Groves.  Other groves have trees that are scattered along a narrow canyon wash where, instead of a spring, the underground water here is concentrated and closer to the surface.  This is evident with Pygmy and Surprise Canyon Groves.

The seeds of palm trees have an interesting way of sprouting and it involves coyotes.  Coyotes eat the dates that have fallen from fruit-laden trees and the seeds pass through intact.  Scat left by the coyote is filled with these seeds and they are now covered with the nourishment they can use to sprout.  When the timing is right, a desert rainstorm will bury the scat (and its seeds) and hopefully, a new palm tree will sprout.  As you hike, you might be lucky enough to find some seed-laden scat along the hiking trail – we did.

Mountain Palm Springs is located in the southwestern corner of the Park in the Tierra Blanca Mountains and the trailhead is easily accessible from Highway S2.

From Christmas Circle, reset your odometer to zero and go south on Hwy S3 (Borrego Springs Rd).  The road slowly turns to the east and you’ll pass by several of the Galleta Meadows sculptures.  At 5.1 miles, Hwy S3 makes a slight right onto Yaqui Pass Rd. 

Continue on Hwy S3 over Yaqui Pass and at 12.1 miles you are at the junction with Hwy 78.  Turn right (west) and at 19.1 miles you are at Scissors Crossing (junction of Hwy 78 and Hwy S2).  Turn left onto Hwy S2 (also known as Great Southern Overland Stage Route or Sweeny Pass Road on some maps) and stay on it for the next 30 miles.  You’ll pass by Blair Valley and Agua Caliente County Park.

At the 49.3 mile mark, turn right onto an easy, car-friendly dirt road.  There should be a sign indicating Mountain Palm Springs or Mountain Palm Campground.  The trailhead and parking area are at the end of this short dirt road.

This hike is a big loop that’s approximately 3 miles long.  It can be taken in either direction, clockwise or counter-clockwise, and can still be rewarding if you want to make it shorter by not hiking the whole thing.  We took it clockwise, so we’ll describe it in that direction and recommend that you take this direction, too.  It is a relatively easy hike when you’re in the washes but crossing the ridge to get from one canyon to the other involves some short but steep spots and is very rocky.

From the parking area, head west.  Follow the well-used trail up the wash, towards the few palm trees just a short distance away that are almost hidden around the corner of a canyon.  The trail passes by those trees, goes through a narrow section of canyon and then opens up, revealing the first grove.

Pygmy Grove is a small smattering of about 20 palm trees.  This is one of those groves where the trees are spread out (as opposed to being clustered together) which is most likely due to the narrowing of the canyon here.  This narrowing causes the water in the drainage to be more concentrated and closer to the surface. Continue following the trail as it passes by the various palm trees and begins ascending up a wash towards the southwest. 

After walking for 10-15 minutes, you’ll see a large palm grove in the distance.  This is Southwest Grove and is the grove you may have spotted from Highway S2.  It is about three quarters of a mile from the parking area.

Once at Southwest Grove, you’ll find it easy to walk among the trees because there is very little palm frond “leaf litter” to get in your way.  You’ll also notice that most of these trees have burnt trunks, evidence that, at some point, much of the leaf litter was burned away.  Take advantage of this “neat” grove by getting close to the trees and really enjoying them.  There are around 100 trees here, all clustered together, which indicates that there is a spring nearby.

If your time is limited or if you’ve seen enough palm trees at this point, then you can turn around here and retrace your steps back to the parking area.

To continue the hike to the other groves, find the trail that climbs a ridge on the north side of the Southwest Grove. The hiking distance over this rocky ridge to the next canyon is about half a mile and this is the section we mentioned earlier that is rocky and has steep spots (starting with this climb).  When starting your climb up, be sure to look back at Southwest Grove for a different view of the palms.  Once above the grove, you’ll have a distant view into the Carrizo Badlands and be sure to look for the palm trees of Pigmy Grove as you hike along, too.

Also at the start of this section of the trail, you’ll pass by a big elephant tree; the only one we saw along our hike.  In neighboring Indian Gorge / Torote Canyon, there are dozens of elephant trees.  Continue climbing the trail past the elephant tree and follow it as it winds through a sea of granite rock outcroppings.

As the trail descends towards Surprise Canyon, there is a certain point where you look up from the trail and the canyon seems to suddenly be there…. Surprise!  Before you continue down into the canyon, be sure to look into the entire canyon to see all of the palm trees of Surprise Canyon Grove from this vantage point.  Here, just like at Pygmy Grove, the trees are scattered around because of the narrowing of the canyon.

After looking at the Surprise Canyon Grove, walk up-canyon (left from the trail).  You will return to this point later.  Soon, the canyon widens significantly and you’ll see Palm Bowl Grove in the distance, which is just under half a mile away.

Palm Bowl Grove is located at what seems to be the end of Surprise Canyon.  Like the trees at Southwest Grove, this grove has a spring and the trees are clustered together.  Unlike Southwest Grove, however, these trees have not been burned so you’ll see large piles of dead palm fronds.  This is another large grove with around 75 trees.

When you are finished enjoying Palm Bowl, retrace your steps back down Surprise Canyon and past Surprise Canyon Grove.  There are no palm trees just past where the trail from Southwest Grove came down and then, in a short distance, you’ll see a few more trees.  This is North Grove and probably the smallest of all the groves.

Just past North Grove, you’ll see a canyon come in from the left that joins Surprise Canyon as it then makes a 45-degree right turn.  If you’d like to see the last grove, turn left and go a third of a mile up the canyon to see Mary’s Grove.  Otherwise, if you’ve seen enough palm trees for one day, make that right turn down-canyon and you’ll see the parking area in the distance.  It’s about a third of a mile away.